Tag Archives: #creativityskills

Shape and colour hunt!

This week, the children have had so much fun collecting and displaying different objects around our nursery for our ‘shape hunt’. They enjoyed investigating different rooms in the nursery, getting really creative finding different shapes in a variety of forms!

“I have so many rectangles. There’s no more space!”

“Look, we’ve got big ones AND littles ones!”

 

“Look at all my circles. It’s like all the planets in the solar system”

Some children even used their imagination to extend their learning further, and turned their shapes into something completely different!

Other children suggested we went a ‘colour hunt next’ which was really fun! We hunted in different rooms and in the garden and found some really interesting things to sort into our colours.

 

“I’m going to find lots of purple because it’s my favourite colour. It matches my dress!”

“I want to draw my pink things.”

The children loved exploring, collecting and sorting all different shapes and colours throughout the playroom and displaying their findings to their friends. They really engaged their imaginations and creative skills, well done boys and girls!

 

 

 

 

Water Xylophone

This week is Science Week and we will be exploring science themed experiences throughout all the different areas in each of the playrooms.

Today in our music area we made a water xylophone using some glass jars and food colouring.

We were developing our fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as we used a pipette to pour the food colouring in to the jar after which, we added some water.

Once the children had added the water, they lined up all the jars and noticed that each jar had a different volume of water.

”that one is filled right to the top”

”the red one has just a little bit”

We used a beater on the jars to listen to the sounds it made.

”The blue one sounds really low and the red one sounds really high”

I asked if the children knew what made the sounds but they were unsure.

After searching the internet we learned that when we use the beater to tap the jar it causes sound waves which are vibrations that travel through the water to make the sound. When there is less water the pitch is higher.

We listened to the different pitches as we played our own music, we are going to collect some more jars to add lots of different sounds.

Clay exploration

Today we have been enjoying exploring the clay table.

The children decided to use some natural resources to make different models, we used some mini lollipop sticks, sea shells, sticks, little wooden slices, etc to create them.

The children found it tough to roll the clay out. So i asked them what they think clay is and what they think they could use to roll the clay.

“It’s play dough”

” It’s not Play dough its too hard”

” We could use a rolling pin”

The children used the rolling pin to roll out the clay.

“We can use our hands to roll it in a ball like this”

Clay helps to develop fine  motor skills as the children are using their hand muscles to manipulate the clay as they roll, stretch, squeeze it. They are also  using their gross motor skills as they use their large muscles to press down on the clay as it is tougher than play dough.

“look at the shell it looks like it is on my clay now”

We have been making different patterns too.

 

“I made some pretty biscuits, have one with your tea”

The children have been using their imagination to come up with different things to make with the clay.

Celebrating Robert Burns 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Today the children celebrated Burns’ Day with a variety of different experiences throughout the centre.

Out in the garden the children made Scotch pancakes cooked on our fire. They enjoyed measuring and mixing the ingredients and watched whilst Fiona cooked them on the fire pit. They demonstrated good listening skills whilst being told about how to keep safe around the fire.

Continuing the Scottish theme, some of the children used their creative skills to design their own tartan using paint and cars. They rolled their car in the paint then onto their paper.

In the Home Room the children asked to make flapjacks. They measured each of the ingredients, developing both numeracy and literacy skills. After mixing them together they used the clock to time how long they took to cook in the oven. They even assisted with cleaning up.

The children in the Discovery Room read a story by Rebecca Colby and Kate McLelland about a wee lassie who swallowed a midgie! They watched a short story on the life of Robert Burns and enjoyed some highland dancing.

The children love to sing at Cartmill and today was no exception. In the Studio they learned some Scottish songs; Coulter’s Candy, 3 Craws sat upon a Wa’ and Pop a little pancake into a pan. They even joined in, playing musical instruments.

All the children enjoyed tasting some haggis, neeps and tatties for snack and tasted some of their flapjacks.

Sensory Play

Today the children found a packet of marshmallows and were keen to explore and investigate them.

 

Using an iPad they researched what things they could make. We found a recipe for marshmallow playdough so we chose that.

The children measured out the marshmallows and poured some vegetable oil into a bowl.

The recipe asked for the marshmallows to be melted and the children asked how they would do this. They talked about it and used the microwave in the staff room to do this.

After 30 secs the microwave pinged and they were excited to see what the marshmallows looked like. They noticed that they had all melted but looked hot.

They brought the bowl back to the playroom and added some cornflour to the mix. Using their super muscles they took turns at mixing it.

It’s very soft
It’s sticky

The children enjoyed exploring the texture of this new play dough and by adding dried oranges and lemons added to their sensory experience.

Colourful Fingers

The children in the Toddler Room are always very expressive and creative so when we found some very colourful finger paints in one of the cupboards in the playroom they were keen to try them out.

At first they were very careful, using only one finger, testing out each colour.

They experimented with different colours, making swirls on their paper.

Very quickly they started to use their whole hands, feeling the paint between their fingers.

Its cold and squishy
Blue paint.

Small swirls with one finger became huge swirls and mark making with a whole hand.

Oh look at my colourful hands too
Pink hands

All the children had loads of fun painting with their fingers and hands and were very excited to see their finished artwork hanging up drying ready to take home.

Olympic Fever

Olympic fever has arrived at Cartmill.

Yesterday the children enjoyed their own mini games which started them talking about various sports that they all take part in. Running races, jumping, bike racing, tennis, basketball, gymnastics, swimming, football, golf to name a few.

This led to talk about the Olympics being held over the next couple of weeks in Tokyo, Japan. Some children asked what the Olympics were. Through discussions with staff, they learned that the Olympics were held every 4 years with people from countries all over the world taking part in lots of different sports to win medals for their country.

The children watched some of the Opening Ceremony from London 2012 with great interest and tried to guess the countries from their flags, as well as watching the ceremony where the medals are awarded.

1st, 2nd and 3rd place
J said it goes round her neck
She looked very happy

After their mini games some of the children asked if they could make their own little medals. They found some gold, silver and a bronze coloured shiny paper and some ribbon. They glued the shiny paper onto some card, cut out a circle and attached some ribbon.

S’s medal goes over her head like the one on the screen.

C shows her silver medal off with pride.

Who knows we may have a future olympian here at Cartmill.

Taking part in sports helps to keep our bodies fit and healthy and improves our general health and wellbeing.